Owners of former post office plan restaurant

Published 10:08 pm, Thursday, February 14, 2013

The owners of the former Post Office building on the Post Road are seeking a variance to reduce required parking spaces.

The owners of the former Post Office building on the Post Road are seeking a variance to reduce required parking spaces.

Photo: File Photo

Owners of former post office plan restaurant

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

The new owner of the former Post Office building in downtown Fairfield hopes to win the stamp of approval to convert part of the structure into a restaurant.

The owner, 1262 Post Road LLC, has asked for a variance on parking requirements to facilitate the project.

William Fitzpatrick, the lawyer who represents the owner, said about a half-dozen potential restaurateurs have expressed interest in locating in the brick structure. A specific tenant, however, has not yet been chosen.

"They would like to get the process moving," Fitzpatrick said of his clients, who bought the circa 1935 building last May for $4.3 million from the U.S. Postal Service. The downtown post office has moved into smaller quarters in the office building next door.

A zoning board hearing on the variance request, which also seeks reduce the side setback on the east side of the building from 10 feet to 5.3 feet, was to be held late Thursday afternoon in Sullivan-Independence Hall.

The applicants intend to renovate and expand the building, while maintaining the center facade of the original structure. The front of the building adjacent to the Post Road will house a restaurant with a patron floor area of 1,800 square feet.

Plans also call for a seasonal outdoor patio for the restaurant extending to the west from the front steps and wrapping around the building along the west side.

Four separate retail spaces are planned at the rear section of the building.

The owners are asking that parking requirements be reduced from the required 91 spaces to 59, arguing that the anticipated restaurant demand will be in the evening, when the retail uses on the site are not generally open for business.

Lunch hour clientele is expected to be downtown shoppers, business owners and employers that will not generate any "material" parking demand, according to the application.